Peter's petite pair of picos

[brandon429]

face up the mouths are in those pits. face down is no food catching and no sunlight or at least some shading

[lljdma06]

face up the mouths are in those pits. face down is no food catching and no sunlight or at least some shading

 

They are also found in full sun locations in the wild, so some very diverse locations. The more important factors are good flow & lots of food. If you overly shade them, you risk putting them in an aquarium location that sacrifices flow.

 

Yes, you do have to make sure that all the polyps get food.

 

L

[castiel]

Thanks, both. That's what I figured and have seen in my research, just thought I would double check.

[stevo165]

Your tank looks stunning mate cant wait to see it grow over time. hopefully those chalice frags take off there they will look amazing growing out of the rock

[castiel]

Thanks!

 

I was lazy/distracted last weekend and didn't do a water change ... then have been working late all week so haven't got around to it. So Saturday, after 2 weeks, it is. Not bad though, only the second time since I got the tank that I haven't done a weekly change (excluding my vacation).

[castiel]

Well the last of our three ghost shrimp bit the dust today. Two of them died after about a month, but one of them made it to the 3 month mark - longer than most people thought would be the case.

 

When I saw this, I thought some unidentified bug was attacking my duncans. Then I realised the shape of it ... at least those two Duncs will be full for a while.

 

[lljdma06]

That's a happy Duncan. It always amazes me how the seemingly most harmless thing can really be voracious if given the opportunity.

[castiel]

Couple of little updates.

 

- got my 60 degree lenses through for the PAR38, so have fitted those and coverage is much better. Had to do some more DIY on the lamp.

- added a peppermint shrimp and another small hermit to my tank

[MetaTank]

Happy duncan! I have a little peppermint shrimp in my pico too, he thinks he owns the place! I was also thinking of getting another hermit to keep my red legged hermit company...Maybe a blue legged? haha, anyway, Pico looks great, I'm digging the verticsal scape.

[castiel]

(bad photos)

 

Ang's

 

Mine

[castiel]

Picked up a couple of zoa frags. I think they are Eagle Eyes, and Magicians ... but will let someone else ID them when they open up. We don't really do the zoa naming thing here in Aus! (which is perhaps why I got both for $20, maybe 20 polyps total).

[lljdma06]

I don't really name mine either. Pink ones, blue ones, yellowy neon ones, purty ones, really cool ones... That's as far as I get.

 

I think I have fire & ice & Eagle eyes & I heard something about a dragon or a wizard, but I don't know.

 

Peechurs!!

 

L

[brandon429]

that coral above has even more feed input requirement than the brain from earlier, this will be interesting to track.

 

what are your plans to approach that coral Peter in terms of feeding>its a doozie. they will run underfed for about 3 months in a pico and then the edges will show skeleton. they don't even react much to great feeding they just don't recede, its hard to gauge when they are fed correctly because for the longest time they just sit there. If polyp recedes around the edges in a couple months it will be hard to regain, hope you feed this bad boy a pizza and change his water every time.

 

I rate these as in the top 90% of corals hard to keep past 6 months in a sub 3 gal pico but they sure are nice looking. its easy to keep them long term if you spot feed them with diligence.

[tylernt]

that coral above has even more feed input requirement than the brain from earlier,

You mean the scoly?

[castiel]

Hmm now I am confused as to whether this is a scoly, or a red open brain ... and what the difference is! I thought I had identified it as a trachyphyllia geoffroyi which matched several Google Image results and websites. But now you have mentioned scoly I think it is actually a scolymia australis.

 

The other reason I thought it was an open brain was the price! It was in the $20 tank, whereas every other scoly I have seen for sale down here has been $80+. But then it does have that small bit of damage which is perhaps why.

 

brandon - agree with you that it is a challenge but so far, finger's crossed, it has eaten extremely well. Three times this week it has had mysis placed on it, and every time it has extended tentacles fully and eaten (as long as I keep the damn hermits away from it, that is). In fact it ate within 10 minutes of being placed in the tank! It extends its tentacles regularly, particularly at night

[jgpico]

I personally think its an open brain. All of the scoly's that I have ever seen have more of a solid color as opposed to almost transparent. Like my scoly for example, the green and reds are a solid color and there is no lighter colors. I dont know if what I am saying is making sense to you but I hope so lol

[castiel]

I'll try and get some better pics when I can so we can continue the scoly/brain discussion, but you have a good point.

 

Anyway, in the meantime, here are some of the zoas starting to open up:

[lljdma06]

I'll try and get some better pics when I can so we can continue the scoly/brain discussion, but you have a good point.

 

Anyway, in the meantime, here are some of the zoas starting to open up:

 

The zoas look like eagle eyes to me, but "cool orange zoas with neony tentacles" is just as good a name.

 

Based on what I've seen at LFS, it looks like an open brain to me too. A scoly looks more dense or solid may be a better word.

[castiel]

So bit of a surprise today. We took a drive out to our favourite LFS which only gets a visit every couple of months. I was intending to get a leather, but still haven't found the right sized piece. Instead I ended up walking out with these ...

my first SPS! I hope I can look after it ... better start taking more regular tests of the water I guess.

 

Also while feeding time I got a few top down shots which I haven't done before.

 

Couple of Ang's (she was annoyed as she was trying to feed while I was snapping away!)

 

And a couple of the open brain feeding.

[lljdma06]

Actually, in those pictures, it looks like a scoly. Lololol. LFS are dangerous places. Your clown goby looks great.

 

Congratulations on your first sps! Yay!

 

L

[kevlow]

Enjoying following your thread. Congrats and good luck w/ the new pieces.

 

Any chance at seeing new FTS of each tank?

 

kevin

[brandon429]

are you dosing c balance Peter or any other calc/alk maintainers?

[castiel]

Brandon, not at the moment, no. Funny when I bought these I had a little voice in my head and it was you saying 'need to start dosing c balance' =0)

 

My current stats look like this (60% water change yesterday)

- calc 420-440ppm

- KH 7dph/125ppm

- pho 0

 

I need to get an alk test ... and will test these again at the end of the week to see how much they change.

 

[edit] By the way, the first SPS piece is Acropora "Dallas Warren" (which I believe is similar to a Green Slimer you guys get, but more fluorescent). The second piece ... not sure what that is, the LFS response was 'just a piece of acro' - I only got that as he threw it in for free with the Dallas.

[brandon429]

water params and corals look grrreat still benefitting from how detritus free you keep the tank!

[castiel]

Thanks!

 

Hmm the Dallas is bleached at the bottom ... about 1/2". The LFS had it stuck in the egg crate (no plug), plus that is the area I probably pushed on the most when I stuck it in. So I am hoping it is just a bit of damage and not RTN. The top of the coral looks amazingly healthy ... guess only time will tell.